India has urged all the nations to abide with pacts banning biological weapons and respect sovereignty and integrity of states. This plea came at a United Nations Security Council(UNSC)called by Russia to discuss alleged presence of biological laboratories in Ukraine.
Making his country’s stand clear at the session on late Friday, Permanent Representative of India to UN T S Tirumurti said matters relating to obligations under the Biological and
Toxin Weapons Convention(BTWC) should be addressed through consultation and cooperation between the parties concerned. He also stressed the need for sustained dialogue to end the ongoing war.
Russia requested for the Security Council meeting followed a US rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine is operating chemical and biological labs with American support.
“We have repeatedly expressed serious concern over the ongoing situation in Ukraine,” Tirumurti said on Friday. Stating that India has noted the recent statements by member states regarding biological activities, he said “In this context, we would like to underline the importance attached by India to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) as a key global and non-discriminatory disarmament Convention, prohibiting an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.” He also stressed that it is important to ensure full and effective implementation of the BTWC in letter and spirit.
Russian Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia said in the Council that "we discovered truly shocking facts of emergency cleanup by the Kyiv regime of traces of a military biological programme being implemented by Kyiv with support by the US Ministry of
Defense.”
He said Russia's Ministry of Defence has documents confirming that on the territory of Ukraine there was a network of 30 bio labs where "very dangerous biological experiments were being conducted aimed at strengthening pathogenic qualities of plague, anthrax, cholera and other lethal diseases using synthetic biology.”
Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Council that Russian armed forces are pursuing their offensive operations and laying siege to several cities in the south, east and north of the country.
She said the situation is particularly alarming in Mariupol, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv, where there is the shelling of residential areas and civilian infrastructure, resulting in an increasing number of civilians killed and injured.
“Directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages, are also prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes,” she said.
Tirumurti said India sincerely hopes the “ongoing direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine would lead to cessation of hostilities. “There is no other alternative except the path of diplomacy and dialogue. The dire humanitarian situation needs immediate and urgent attention,” he said.
